A TASTE FOR DEATH by PD James

I prefer Scandinavian mysteries, with colorful and sometimes perverted characters, but this is an English mystery, and most of the characters are subdued and buttoned up.  There’s no shortage of violence, though, as Paul Berowne, a former member of Parliament, and a homeless man named Harry Mack, both have had their throats slashed in a church vestry.  Adam Dalgliesh is the Scotland Yard detective investigating the murders, or possibly a murder/suicide, along with John Massingham and Kate Miskin.  Berowne has a slew of unsavory family members and acquaintances who had motives for killing him, including his beautiful but vacuous wife Barbara, her arrogant lover, her flamboyant brother, and Berowne’s daughter’s insurrectionary lover.  This is the 7^th Adam Dalgliesh (how do you pronounce that?) novel in the series, but it is my first.  Perhaps since Dalgliesh has been introduced in previous novels, his personal life does not garner a lot of personal attention.  However, the author does give us some meaty background on Kate Miskin, who perhaps appears for the first time in a Dalgliesh novel.  I really liked her combination of humanity, ambition, integrity, and competence.  As with most murder mysteries, the bulk of the novel involves introducing the suspects and fleshing out their possible motives and opportunities, not to mention their flimsy alibis.  Complicating the investigation, or perhaps lending clues to it,  are three other deaths, all women, tied to Berowne’s past—a fatal car accident, a drowning, and a suicide.  The story unfolds nicely, and a couple, but not all, of the innocent people survive hair-raising encounters with the murderer, and I have to say that I liked that the murderer, despite his/her hubris, does not manage to take out all the good guys.